


Timeframe - back already?

by Fionir



Series: Fragments of a world [2]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Might add more chapters, Overwatch Recall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2019-01-25
Packaged: 2019-08-21 12:27:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16576475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fionir/pseuds/Fionir
Summary: Emily is left home alone, while Tracer followed the recall to join Winston in his quest of reactivating Overwatch. It could have been a quiet, if a little boring time... if only it had been.





	1. back already

**Author's Note:**

> To practice my english wirting I decided to translate a collection of Overwatch related shorts I wrote (and will write as the collection grows).  
> If you have tips regarding my wording or simply find mistakes, that alter the meaning or make things difficult to understand, please feel free to point them out.  
> I read and listen to English a lot, but i don't have many opportunities to actually get to write or talk.

Emily did everything she could not to lose her calm, but ever since Lena had gotten the call on her old com, Emm could barely think a clear thought. Her girlfriend had been so full of joy, for being able to return to her old life, the redhead hadn’t dared to voice her concerns. When Lena told her she would be gone for a few days, Emm already knew what was going on. Still she had been taken by surprise. Everything happened so fast all of a sudden.  
“Operation Recall”  
Lena didn’t talk much about her work, never did, regardless of them knowing each other for years. They met after the fall of Overwatch and while Emily would have loved to hear exactly what place her friend had taken in the now fallen organization, she never pushed her too hard. Lena only told what she absolutely needed to. In the end, everything Emm knew could put her in danger. Overwatch’s enemies were still out there and Lena was an easy target. The device she carried on her made her stand out quite a bit. Emily had gotten a security level just for living with the ex-agent. 

Back before everything had started, Lena had warned her. It had been the single most bizarre moment in their relationship up till today. It had been their fifth or fourth date… back then they saw each other pretty much daily, so counting dates got kind of difficult. Lena had always been avoiding Emm’s questions about her past and how she got her position in the time anomaly research program. The former pilot didn’t need to wear her gear in the lab, she had a station for the Chrono there and she went all out trying to keep it hidden under big jackets and shirts, when they met elsewhere.  
Emm had been close to just ending whatever their relationship had been at that point. In hindsight she wanted to slap herself for not recognizing the woman. She had seen her on posters and on the news so many times, only under a different name.  
She was never going to forget how angsty Lena looked, when she finally told Emm, that she didn’t only resemble the Overwatch agent called Tracer.  
Emily hadn’t once thought about it. In the end that probably had been a major factor in their relationship even getting started. For over half a year the Irishwoman had not seen her as the fallen hero; they had just been colleagues… friends. 

And now she should just accept that her friend would go back to that old life. Putting herself back in danger to help others. Emm couldn’t do anything about it. She could just sit there and try not to lose her mind worrying about her, while Lena was gone for the weekend.  
She trusted Lena with all her heart, but that didn’t change anything.  
The cavalry was back.  
Just for a few days for now… But Lena had gotten a two week leave from her job at the university hospital. That spoke volumes. This was only the beginning.  
Emm hadn’t had a chance to take a holiday too. And Lena knew it. The stubborn Irishwoman would have never let her go on her own otherwise. But her anger had vanished the second she had to say goodbye to her girlfriend. As soon as the door fell shut, there had been nothing left but worries… that had been yesterday… and now she was stuck here, without even her own job to take her mind off of things.  
The university hospital was closed for the weekend. Only very few patients were stationed there, so there was no need for a lot of staff being around, much less for medical information scientists like herself. She was not part of the time anomaly team, after all she was still about to get her PhD. And she didn’t even work with the patients most of the time… back when everything started Lena had been one of the first “patients” she had even gotten around talking to. And Lena hadn’t even been a real patient. This weekend there wouldn’t be any experiments and since she wasn’t allowed into the labs on her own yet, there was utterly nothing she could do other than wait for Lena to call, or come back home. 

The only reason Emily got herself dressed today was to get some hot buns from the bakery nearby. Since she came back she barely left the couch. Her cellphone and the remote rested on the table, while some BBC-24/7-news program ran in the background.  
She did not know what to expect.  
It was quite unlikely for Overwatch to already act in public. Officially the organization had been shut down by the Petras Act. The document regulated every detail and doomed the former agents to inactivity. Technically they were still under UN supervision, but in reality the only thing they did was make sure none of the ex-agents did anything even remotely connected to each other or the aftermath of their former organization.  
There was no doubt that Lena wasn’t the only one that hated living a regular life, when they could be doing so much more. The Agents of Overwatch had been heroes, said to be fallen into disgrace, but Lena had told enough for Emily to know better. Those people were idealists, just like her energetic pilot girlfriend. And while Emm loved her for it, she also hated every minute it made Lena spend, putting her own wellbeing behind other’s. It was unfair. The pilot had done so much for humanity and for the omnics. It was hard to just accept, what Lena was willing to give for anyone that needed her help.  
“Why don’t you just open up a support goup, Emm.” the Irishwomen joked in her own mind and let out a sigh. But in fact it was a calming thought, that there were other people out there, worrying about their loved ones, carried away by a small spark of hope; leaving their closest just like Lena left Emm yesterday. The Irish could help but wonder how many would answer, if the old heroes would come back. The faces she knew from the posters, back when she had been only a child.  
Heaven knew what was going to happen.  
Christmas would be here in a few months. Should she already be bracing herself for spending the holidays on her own… … If so, Lena was up for trouble.  
With another sigh Emm let her head fall back into the pillows and closed her eyes, as if that would help her get rid of the terrorizing thoughts.

 

\---

 

The next thing Emily noticed was sizzling electricity in the air that made her jolt. Before she knew she sat upright on the edge of the couch. The static made her hair stand. Only after blinking a few times she was able to take in her surroundings.  
The living room was a mess. The shelves were empty, their contents spread all across the floor. And the cause of all this lay in midst the scattered remains of what once had been their wooden table. 

The blue light of the chronal accelerator was nothing more than a dim flicker. Flashes of electrical discharge surrounding it, connecting to the remote and the cellphone and reaching up into the air as if they were searching for something to hold onto. The body beneath the device raised and lowered barely noticeable, the weight of the broken thing nearly suffocating the woman. Emily fell forward, fiddled with the straps and pushed the Chrono off her girlfriend, ignoring the flashes hitting her hands. She didn’t even feel the pain of the small burns they left on her skin. The device landed with a dull crack. 

Gosh, Lena’s whole arm was covered in blood, a huge stain throbbing on her right thigh, scratches and cuts covered her face. The British’s body was numb, but at least she was there for now. Emm took her bruised face between her palms, removed a bloody strand of hair from her forehead and pressed out the other’s name with a shaking voice. Again and again, praying to all the gods she didn’t even believe in. 

“Em...m,” Lena sighed, before her eyes opened.  
“The Chrono broke, Lena, what can I do?”  
“It’s ok, luv.” she breathed and raised the unwounded arm to touch Emily’s face. Her fingers were trembling and the Irish just stared down at her in shock.  
“You’re injured! Nothing is ok.” Emm answered, her voice breaking. Tears formed in her eyes but she didn’t dare to look away, as if that could keep Lena from just… flickering away.  
She knew what the chronal accelerator did and knowing the device dead on the ground got her terrified.  
“Don’t tell myself about this, Emm!” Lena begged, guiding her girlfriends head down to place a faint kiss on her lips. She couldn’t do much more; she had no energy left in her.  
“Lena!” Emm screamed in protest, connecting her forehead to hers, holding her in place, as much, as her trembling hands were able to. But she felt the others skin softening, slipping out of Emily’s hand… out of this timeline.  
“I’ll find you, Emm!” a whisper fainted with the body, “I’ll come back to y...”  
Then she was gone. 

What stayed were the broken chronal accelerator and the burns it’d left on the carpet… and the silence.  
Emily collapsed. She didn’t feel the tears taking over, soaking her sleeves; her hands grabbing the straps of the broken device, as if she begged the thing to take her to wherever Lena hat vanished to. She shot her eyes, as if that could end this nightmare. As if she just needed to wake up.

She wanted to wake up. Now!  
Right now!

But she didn’t. Time went by, without her noticing, without her moving, without her caring. When she finally opened her eyes again her hands were still trembling, the straps of Lena’s device locked in a tense grip that made her fingers hurt. Losing all tension the black strap fell from her hands.  
It was surreal.  
It just could not be real. 

But the mess she was sitting in told her different. The books scattered across the floor; a plastic vase dripping a dark stain onto the carpet; one of the flowers hanging broken over the television.  
Emily didn’t want to move. Every inch of her told her not to, just to keep the hope alive, that all this was nothing more than a dream.  
Standing up onto her feet; taking her eyes of the Chrono; all that felt like the biggest fault she had ever committed. Deep inside, she knew that she was not to blame for any of this, but… everything felt so wrong.

Only then she noticed that the energy was out, her heartbeat echoing through the silence, like a faint rhythm. Her mind clung to the sound, guiding her thoughts away from all the trauma…  
She was developing a new method of analyzing and visualizing cardiac frequencies to deal with the impact of modern prosthesis on the data. It was the subject of her dissertation and it just happened to save her life long before she thought it would. She listened to her own heartbeat calming down, slowing till she could barely make out the rhythm anymore. 

It was dark outside. She must have sat there for hours. What should she do now?  
What the hell was she supposed to do in a situation like this?  
There was no body to call an ambulance for, nothing the fire department or the police could fix. She had some minor burns on her hands and forearms, small lines drawn by the electricity from the chronal accelerator. Nothing she couldn’t handle herself.  
The fuse… getting the energy back on…  
The realization hit her, when she remembered that the news were probably her best chance of finding out what had happened. She ran out the door into the hallway, where the fuse panel sat behind a small wardrobe. She threw the coats to the ground and hastily searched for the right switch. It was the only one that was down: The main fuse. 

With a click the switch turned and a static hum came from the living room.  
Reluctantly she scuffed back, gathering her phone and the remote from the remains of the table. She thought about sitting down on the couch, but couldn’t get herself to, so she just turned on the TV.  
Now she felt like a live wire. Her mind was blank, staring at the screen, barely hearing what the reporter said. She just saw the pictures. The same pictures she had fallen asleep to.  
No tragedies. Nothing.  
Or at least nothing worth reporting. Emily had to calm herself consciously. She tried to reassure herself, that there would be news if some former Overwatch agents had gotten into some major fight. Nothing less than a major fight would have gotten Lena that injured. Emm’s eyes locked onto the clock in the top right corner of the screen and with a sigh, she finally plumped down onto the couch. It was past midnight.  
She left the TV running, but she moved her focus to her phone.  
One Message.  
She blinked at the screen. Tears started to form in her eyes again, and she had to swipe them away with her sleeve to read the text. 

Hello, Luv. Arrived well, call u later.  
Winston forgot to buy food; we’re having bananas n’ peanut butter tonight.  
The Big guy’s totally losing his head over this.  
Cheers.  
I already miss You.[10:47pm]

This was surreal. Emm just couldn’t handle it. She should answer, she wanted to, but for a moment it was like she forgot how to use her mother tongue. Minutes later she managed to form a single sentence, tipping it with trembling hands.

Take care of yourself!

Her head needed time to wrap up all of what just happened but she was slowly getting there. Lena was fine. In this very moment she was save. She couldn’t tell if that massage was from before or after… but they were save at the base, wherever that may be. No reason to worry, Emm tried to tell herself, despite feeling the total opposite. Her head spun stories of how Lena might have gotten injured… of someone attacking them, because they caught the recall signal… there was so much that might have gone wrong; so much Emily didn’t know, that it was hard to stay calm. 

“Don’t tell myself…” Lena’s word echoed through her head. No. It had not been todays Lena. Today’s Lena wouldn’t have a reason to say something like that. Neither would a Lena, that came from the past… in fact such a Lena most likely wouldn’t have known Emm.  
The realization struck her right in the heart. The tears were back and this time, Emm didn’t bother fighting them. She let herself sink into the cushion and just cry her eyes out. She had never been the kind of person to fear the unknown. To fear future just for not being able to know what will come.  
This was so much scarier.  
She fell asleep crying, only to be woken harshly by the sound of her ringing phone.  
It was not Lena’s ringtone. She had to wipe the dried tears from her eyes to see the screen. 

Unknown Number

She muted the TV and tipped the green button, holding the phone to her ear.  
“Hello.” Her voice was thin and husky.  
“Oh dear, are you sick, luv?” a familiar voice answered. Emm put a hand over her mouth, so her silent sob wouldn’t make it to the other side of that call.  
She cleared her throat, before she spoke again, “I was asleep. I’m so sorry, Lena!” She tried to stay calm.  
“You sure you’re ok?” Lena must have heard the soreness in her voice, but Emm was so happy right now, she just wanted to cry again and let her girlfriend know how worried she had been. But the sting in her chest stopped her, forced her to hide that feeling as much as she could. 

“Of course I’m not! I don’t even know what to do with my time.” she tried to harden her voice, but it was still rough.  
“Get some tea, luv, you sound terrible.” Lena chuckled. Emm wasn’t quite sure, if it was honest.  
“Sure, dear.” she said. “How are you doing? How were the bananas?”  
“It’s bloody awful!” Lena sighed but began to laugh as a low voice commented something Emily couldn’t understand. “Com’ ‘ere, big guy! Introduce yourself!” Lena said. As the phone was passed, the Irishwoman could hear the low voice trying to politely decline. Lena must’ve practically been holding the phone to his hear for him.  
“Eh.. hum,” the deep voice caught shyly, “Hello. I’m Winston.”  
“Hi there, I’m Emily.” the Irish answered, a smile finding its place on her face again.  
“Lena told me a lot about you. Thanks for lending us Lena for a while.” Now it was Emily who chuckled, all the relief she felt finally finding a way out that didn’t involve tears.  
“Funny, she didn’t talk all that much about you.” she said, grinning slyly, even though no one would see it.  
“Eh… I’m sorry. Most of the information is under strict...”, Winston fell full force for the trap.  
The redhead heard Lena taking the phone away from the deep voice still talking. “Emm, luv, don’t torture the big guy.”  
“Sorry dear. I guess you can’t tell me what you’re up to, huh?”  
“I’m sorry, Emily.”  
“It’s ok, Lena.” Emily finally meant it. It was ok.  
Winston sounded like a big fluffball, he wouldn’t drag her out into the field. Not yet anyway.  
“Call me tomorrow, ok? And be safe.” she added. She really felt tired now. It was late. The day had been a rollercoaster of emotions.  
“You, too, Emm’. I luv you!” Lena said, her voice soft. Emily heard heavy and somewhat strange steps getting quieter. Obviously Winston knew when to leave someone, too. What a nice guy. Emily would love to get to know him one day.  
“I love you, too, Lena.” she answered. A moment of silence took over. They exchanged a “good night” and some more wishing-well, but eventually Lena hung up. Emily collapsed back into the cushion. She wasn’t sure if she had the energy to go to bed. It would feel empty anyway.  
She closed her eyes for a moment.  
And the moment stayed, the TV still running mute in the background.


	2. Secrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... in the original Version of the first chapter it all ended up being just a bad dream but because I love the angst I changed it for the translation and naturally I couldn't keep myself from going with it...   
> I wanted to wait with uploading untill I knew I would actualy resolve this somehow but by now I have accepted I wont so I'm just throwing it out there...  
> so... enjoy...?   
> Please keep in mind that this will probably not lead to a proper finished story... thanks =)

Emily awoke on the couch. A numbing pain in her head made her shut her eyes before they had the chance to adjust to the light. She had slept in. Pushing her hands to her temples she sighed forcing herself to sit, before she slowly lifted her lids again. The light stung and made her nauseous but she sat through the uncomfortable feelings. When her senses finally had adjusted she pushed herself to stand up.   
She didn’t look at the mess around the house, she knew it was still there and she wanted to deny that truth if only for another moment. Ignoring the little cracks under her feet she dragged herself to the bathroom. It looked almost too normal… Seeing her own face in the mirror made her feel displaced. The bags under her eyes were dark, the eyes themselves still red from crying. Her hair was a mess.   
Not wanting to start her day with anything related to the trauma she was ignoring for the moment, she started to get herself somewhat ready. She’d have to eat something. She had skipped Lunch and Dinner yesterday, but there was still Pasta left from the day before. What time was it anyway?  
There was no clock in the bathroom to tell her, but after she had splashed some water on her face and had brushed her hair back into a messy tail – it didn’t really make a difference, she still looked like a ghost- , she got back into the hallway. Blue numbers showed 12:49; Emm sighed. That was so unlike her… Lena was the one sleeping in, whenever she could.   
Always trying to pry her girlfriend back into bed, when the Irishwoman just got up at 8am; even on weekends.   
Sometimes she gave in. Today she totally would have. But instead of her girlfriend to cuddle, she had a mess to deal with.   
  
How the hell would she explain the missing table? Maybe she should just get a new one and claim she wanted to change things up a bit or something like that. It was Saturday and a trip to IKEA would totally take her mind off of this… or at least get her out of the house. But for now, she settled on sweeping up the remains of the old desk and putting the contents of the shelves back where they belonged. Luckily the vase was made of plastic, so at least that didn’t break and Emm didn’t either; at least for now she managed to push aside any thoughts about what all this was supposed to mean and juts… function. And in this case that meant getting the living room into a somewhat normal state again.   
Really the biggest mess was the destroyed table and of course the Chrono. She couldn’t just throw that thing out, like she would the broken wood and the carpet. She’d have to buy a new rug, too. But that was ok. She didn’t like the old one anyway. She collected the parts of the broken table in a plastic bag and rolled the ruined carpet, catching the remaining chips and splinters in it. She’d need help to get that stuff out of here; They were living on the fourth floor after all.   
When everything but the Chrono was ready to get taken away she crashed for the first time that day. Sitting down onto the couch her phone practically fell into her hand again; at least she didn’t remember taking it consciously.  She hadn’t looked at it all day. The screen showed 14:12 but more important: There was a message.   
  
_Heading out. Wish me luck.  
With the groceries. __J_

_Luv U.  
  
_Emm was going to kill her. If Lena got back here, she was so dead. The Irish thought while laughing to herself in silence. It was a stale try to make fun of the situation but it wasn’t a total waste. At least she knew Lena would be safe for the day. Doing mundane stuff like that would certainly not get her hurt. Emm wasn’t really convinced put she pretended to be, hoping that might make her feel better.   
  
_I hope you slip on a banana peel =P_

She answered still smiling and got to what she actually meant to do: Find someone to help her with getting the mess out of here. She wrote a few messages and stated to wrap up the broken chronal accelerator into another trash bag. Actually into two, just to be sure Lena couldn’t see through the plastic. They had a small compartment down in the basement. They never went down there, except for getting their holiday decoration. There was an old shelve that didn’t fit into their apartment and two bags of old clothes, curtains or table runner, stuff they just didn’t use. If she put the Chrono down there, it should be safe for a while. So that’s what she did.   
  
She tried to not think about the device she was hiding, she just imagined it to be another bag of clothes and stuff. Still she clung to the thing anxiously; wondering if this was really the right thing to do. She hadn’t even thought about it until now… She just did as Lena had begged her to. But was that really the smart thing to do? Maybe all that mess could be avoided, if she just told her girlfriend. The here and now one. Emm took a mental note to call the other one Future-Lena for further thoughts about the matter, because this was threatening to get confusing.   
Before she knew she was on her way back up; chewing on her lip while trying to wrap her head around this situation. But she had left the Chrono down there… for now.

Her phone beeped twice, while she climbed the steps; too restless to wait for the elevator. And good thing she did, because as she got to the fourth floor she saw two men in dark blue semi-casual UN attire at their apartment door. She lingered and watched for a moment. The staircase was separated by a glass door. She couldn’t hear what the taller of the two said, as he pushed something in his ear, but seeing it provided at least some insight.   
Well, she couldn’t hide here forever. Eventually one of the men would turn, so she decided to act first. Bracing herself she stepped into the corridor. “May I help you”, she asked politely, her face neutral. The men exchanged a look.   
“Miss Tierney?”, the smaller man asked. His hair was dark and surprisingly long for someone that worked in a security or even military position.  
 “Yes. And you are?” she asked back, crossing her Arms.   
“Miss Tierney, we are supposed to ask you a few questions. Would you mind…”, the same man said, gesturing toward the door and utterly ignoring her questions. Well… the UN logo was on their vests. Maybe she was more nervous than she thought; definitely more nervous than she wanted to be. She had seen enough movies to have some kind of expectation and pretend to have a clue, what was going on.

“Before I answer anything I’d like to see your IDs.” Emm remembered one of the most important things you should do before letting some strangers trying to come off as officials into your house. She moved closer to take the cards one of the men handed her. She silently studied the information before she returned them. “O’Connel and Redfield.” She said eyeing the men, the smaller one, “Redfield”, looked more like a southern European type, so she had some doubts about the validity of the names, but the rest looked authentic.  
“Yes, Miss”, O’Connel answered patiently, as his colleague took the IDs back. He was more of an unspecific white ethnicity, as far as looks go. Emm started feeling uncomfortable looking like a mess in front of these guys with their fancy UN-suits; but there was really nothing she could do about that now. 

She sight and moved past them, her “key” in hand. Actually the doors in here worked with encrypted transponders connected to a preinstalled alarm system. “Don’t mind the mess”, she warned the men as she held the door open. They thanked with a nod. Emm led them to the living room and gestured them to sit on the couch, while she got herself a chair from the kitchen. The couch could actually fit 3 people, but she really didn’t want to sit next to them.  
The men sat in silence, while they waited for her. She placed her chair opposite to them; in a slight angle, just to give her some room to look at something other than them.

“So”, Emm caught their attention, as she noticed their eyes tracing the remaining mess in her living room. The carpet lay in front of the shelves, the bag with the remains of the table leaned in a corner.   
They looked at her for a moment before the taller man coughed slightly and raised his voice, “Miss Tierney, the UN send us to investigate the whereabouts of former Overwatch agent Lena Oxford.”   
“Ok,” Emm commented as the man paused, not saying anything else because that had not been a question. And she really wanted to be petty right now.   
“What happened here?” The man slightly changed the subject, instead of just asking about Lena directly, which was fine for her.  
“We had a fight.” she lied, trying to sound as calm as before. The men exchanged a doubtful gaze, but the statement was true enough to remind Emm, that there had indeed been a fight… somewhere in the future. She couldn’t hide the tears starting to fill her eyes, as the pictures of her injured girlfriend filled her mind again. She had tried so hard not to let it get to her. This shit was too much for her right now. How was this fair? Wasn’t one mess enough to deal with? She tried to keep a stern look but the despair made it impossible.   
“I’m sorry.” O’Connel commented giving her a moment to regain posture, and she took the time to wipe her tears before he went on, “Please excuse our intrusion into personal affairs, but since this might be connected to the situation that brought us here I have to ask you why you fought.”

  
Emm was silent for a moment, still fighting down tears. Actually that seemed to help her shameless lie right now, but the lack of control still made her angry. She tried to come up with something she could put enough of her true feelings into, to not seem fake. The anger helped. “I was kind of unfair to her… She has taken a two week break from work and be kept it from me ‘till it was too late to get leave, too. Actually I just found out through one of her colleagues a few days ago. She tried to convince me, she only wanted to visit some friends. But she made very clear she didn’t want me to join her so… what was I to think?” She talked herself into it, so she hoped it was convincing enough. “We had some days of cold silence, I tried to figure what she was really up to and yesterday we just both snapped at each other… I confronted her with my assumptions, she just told me about those friends again. I didn’t believe her because I was angry. I mean. I know it’s not illegal for her to meet her friends, even if they’d be from Overwatch, she showed me the Petras Act.”, she dropped just to let these men know she wasn’t stupid nor uninformed, “She told me I couldn’t lock her in here. And I threw some stuff at her, she tried to stop me and we fell and broke the table. We had that coming I guess… I didn’t think about it yesterday but… I don’t even know if she has someone she talks to about her times as an agent. She certainly wasn’t talking to me, so that’s all I can tell you.” Her hands were trembling with anger and frustration. Actually those things had been conflicts between her and Lena since the Recall reached the ex-agent, but contrary to her little story they had worked it out somehow…

Emm got the troubles Lena had with that life she had to live here. Lena Oxton had been a pilot, an agent, a hero… she was not a person you can put in a normal everyday job and expect her to be content. How could she after having such an eventful life. Emm got that… totally got that and swallowed her anger.  
“It’s all right, Miss.” Redfield said calmly and brought her thoughts back to the situation at hand. “Do you know where Oxton currently is?”  
Emm shook her head. “She just left. Maybe she went to visit that friend, if he exists, I don’t know, I’m not sure I want to know yet.”   
O’Connel nodded in sympathy.  Emily wasn’t sure if they were buying her shit or just acting along. “Is there anything she said that might support the assumption, she was about to violate the Regulations of the Petras Act?”, the smaller one continued questioning.   
Emm didn’t like that guy, he gave her that bad-cop vibe; she really had to watch her mouth not to get Lena in trouble more than she already was. “No. It just felt strange. She never tried to visit her old friends. So I just guess it was either something illegal or she was cheating on me.” Emm’s face was blank, the anger vanished quickly now that she wasn’t feeding it anymore. “Is she in trouble?”,  she asked her voice cold, even though her heart dropped at the thought.  
“No, Miss Tierney, Miss Oxford is just under surveillance for now.” The taller man answered exchanging another gaze with his partner. Yeah this was pretty much the reallife version of good cop – bad cop from the old-school crime movies.   “The UN tries to keep our interference to a minimum, as you might know. But Miss Oxton seems to have slipped through our net. We need you to understand, that this investigation isn’t meant to charge Miss Oxton for a presumed violation of the law. Her disappearance is a major safety concern for our organization, and everyone involved with her person.” The bad cop, “Redfield”, added with a unspoken threat in-between the words.  
The woman sat silent for a moment. Contemplating her thoughts and trying to find a good way to get out of this. “So, I’m in danger, if she went rogue?”, she finally asked.  
“No, Miss Tierney, that’s what we are here for. I think you get that under the given cirumstances we will need to keep close regard to anything that might lead us to Miss Oxtons whereabouts.”

Yeah Emm couldn’t trust her phone anymore. These guys surely had her hooked up into their surveillance network by now. Even if they believed her lies, because that’s just the logical thing to do. Emm made a mental note to also assume to be watched wherever she went from now on, cause that was a pretty logical thing to do too. And even though that was all nice and logical she got angry at the men again. “Yeah sure, whatever helps you get this under control again”, she said in a sharp undertone.   
Then her mood shifted again. She felt like she did back when she was still a teen. She had not even noticed she’d started to manipulate her own feelings again until they slipped out of her control. It had taken her years to get rid of that habit and it was scary to see herself fall back to it again so easily. Self-manipulation was a efficient but dangerous tool. It had made her into a good liar back then… but she realized that she had lied to herself more than anyone else in the process. The numbing fear that froze her in place and made her somewhat snappish took over.

“…but under the given circumstances we have to expect everything.”  
She finally noticed O’Connel had started talking again… she hadn’t been paying attention. “Is that all?” she asked impatiently starring at the men with a blank expression, or what she hoped was one.  
“Not quiet”, Redfield said catching her gaze with his own eyes.  
She wanted to say something along the lines of ‘Spit it out!’ but she didn’t, instead she crossed her arms and waited.  
“Have there been any anonymous calls lately? Did Miss Oxton behave differently, aside from your fight.”  
“She talked less than usual. Guess because she wanted to keep her break from me, till she wouldn’t have to deal with me anymore.”  
“Let me be more specific, Miss: Was there a call to Miss Oxton around a month ago?”  
“She gets calls all the time. She’s on on-call duty a lot, when there aren’t any experiments scheduled in her program, so I wouldn’t have noticed.”  
“This very specific call would not have reached her on your normal phone.”  
“That’s not a question”, she spoke out loud, before she noticed she had grown more and more impatient.   
“We’re merely interviewing you. This is not an interrogation, Miss” She could practically hear the unspoken ‘yet’ hanging in the air between her and the man. The taller one was fiddling with a cellphone. It vibrated once, then he put it away to look up into the silence.   
“Miss Tierney, just one more question,” he leaned in giving her a reassuring look, “Have you heard from Miss Oxton since she left?”  
Emm shook her head and prayed that Lena had covered up her signal.   
 The men exchanged a silent gaze before they rose simultaneously. “Sorry to bother you, Miss Tierney. Please contact us under this number if Miss Oxton reaches out to you.” The taller man handed Emm a small card with only a number on it. Yeah, she was pretty sure she fucked up, and these guys were even more suspicious of her than before. Well, actually this wasn’t about her at all, it was about Lena. And to be frank… Emm couldn’t get herself to be sorry.   
“We’ll show ourselves out”, the man said and left, as their host didn’t seem to stop them. Emm waited until she heard the door fall shut behind them, then she sight lifting herself of the chair only to fall into the couch again. Lena would pay for this; for leaving her alone; for making her deal with the UN and this mess… no actually Lena would never know about the mess, bout she’d tell her all about this more than unpleasant visitors.   
She was so going to kill Lena, when she got back.   
  
Emm let herself just lie there for a while, when she pulled out her phone the screen showed 17:31. She checked the messages she had received on her way upstairs. One of her friends from the university had had to pass but one of her colleagues had time. It was late… but she really wanted to get out of here, so she texted back arranging a trip to IKEA with her small hybrid car. She’d have to buy a small  table, but that would be fine. That thing had always been too big for their living room anyway.  Maybe they could get an armchair with a smaller table. That might work. That actually sounded nice. And if Lena complained Emily could just call it her punishment.

Yeah. That sounded all right.   
  
Half an hour later she left her flat. Her hair put up into a casual knot and some comfy but presentable outfit for the evening. The eyes of the two UN-agents followed her over a multitude of screens showing footage of about a dozen surveillance cameras they had gotten access to or placed themselves. It was obvious that Miss Tierney was hiding something, but the question what it might be remained. For now they believed her that she had had a fight with Ex-agent Tracer, the woman had proven to have a unstable temper during their visit and the evidence in the living-room supported her words. But for most of the actual reasons for said fight were highly dubious.   
Judging by her reaction to the question about a certain call, they also were sure she knew exactly which one they mend.

They watched her as a young man joined her in the parking lot. They followed the signal of a small tracker they had placed on her car. Redfield ordered backup in form of some undercover agents, who could follow the pair while they waited on the parking lot in front of the nearest IKEA. They used the time to get a background check on Miss Tierney’s companion. It appeared to one of her coworkers.   
This was basic surveillance work. The duo was more than used to it, it was boring and unfulfilling and they’d have to do it until something useful happened. Whatever that something was.  
At least it was nice to know to be on a top priority mission. Whatever data they needed decrypted or otherwise checked all of Headquarters was at their command for now.  
At about 22:30 someone came by with some food. They had followed Tierney back to her flat, going back to watching camera footage of her and her colleague assembling the furniture. At 21:18 the subject had ordered Chinese Take-out. Just to be safe they had HQ check for hidden codes or anything fishy with the shop or its delivery people. It would take a while. They also had all incoming texts checked. There had been a few; most of them were colleagues or friends apologizing, obviously Tierney had asked a few people to accompany her today. She send only one, which would have been suspicious even if they had not basically told her she was under heavy surveillance. With that knowledge they could be sure that this would probably the hottest clue they would get. They didn’t even need to tell HQ to check the thing; the results reached them only minutes later.

The number was registered on a cousin of Emily Tierney, who went by the name Randall Shummet. The persona and connection was real, but there had been no known contact between Tierney and Shummet for years. Also, the number couldn’t be located.   
They couldn’t be sure, but for now they’d just assume that number actually belonged to Oxton.

Sadly international privacy laws had been strengthened after an incident related to more than one Security Agency. 50 years ago they’d just check the backlog of a phone with everything sent or received, but with Omnics around and the dialogue about their personal rights such a hot topic getting clearance for a full backlog check was near impossible, even for them. After said incident there had been some adjustments to the UN-Charta, that were the reason legally build Omnics didn’t pick up phone signals, or basically any data the human population polluted their surroundings with. Sadly it was also the reason data preservation had become a pain in the ass.   
For them that meant there was no way to know what Ex-Agent Tracer had really told her girlfriend. They’d have to sit here and wait.   
“This’ll be a long week”,  O’Connel sighed putting the packaging of their food on the backseat. Redfield stayed silent, reading through a detailed background check of the cousin to evaluate if they’d need to get their hand on him.


End file.
